A U.S. district judge Monday ruled the lawyer pressing civil charges against a suburban Philadelphia district for photographing two students at home on school-issued laptops deserves compensation from the district for work that helped halt the malfunctioning anti-theft program.
As a result, Mark S. Haltzman stands to receive about $260,000 from the Lower Merion School District, the Associated Press reports, even while he leads a civil suit against it on behalf of Lower Merion High alum Jalil Hasan and Harriton High student Blake Robbins.
To use a sports analogy, this is kind of like a Major League Baseball arbitrator telling the Philadelphia Phillies to pay a pitcher from the Atlanta Braves after the Braves pitcher made several Phillies hitters look so foolish that the Phillies decided to cut them or send them to the minor leagues.
The lawsuit is already unpopular among many parents within the district, and this doesn’t figure to make Haltzman any more beloved. From a neutral perspective, though? Pretty interesting.